WWE NXT 1/9/13 Review

Greetings NXT faithful. It’s that time of year again. Yep, its Rumble season and the buzz surrounding the WWE is starting to pick up. It’s also flu season and I’m still sick. Still…..sick…... believe me, I’m not happy about it. But that means I’m home from work and have plenty of time to watch NXT and its big championship match. Will Seth Rollins retain his championship and remain the one and only NXT champion or does Big E Langston have the Shield’s number? Let’s find out.

NXT opens this week with the revelation that the championship match is now No DQ. Interesting. Yoshi Tatsu and Percy Watson got destroyed by the Wyatt Family (Luke Harper and Eric Rowan) in the opening match. Then Paige beat Emma in an execellent use of five minutes. In a tag match the Colons beat Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty. For the main event Big E Langston won the NXT title from Seth Rollins after some random NXT wrestlers forcibly removed the other members of the Shield from the ringside area, evening the odds.

Sounds like a pretty fun show doesn’t it? Let’s talk about why it was.

The Wyatt Family easily fills the void the Ascension left:

Not that the Wyatt Family and the Ascension are interchangeable acts, but I feel like both had a brawling style not meant to emulate technical wrestling. In that vein, the Wyatt family has waaaaaaay more to offer the Ascension ever did. First off, Bray Wyatt gives Luke Harper and Eric Rowen a mouthpiece the crazy rage-vampires never had access to. Second, when it comes to brawling the Wyatt Family is bigger (both are over 6’ 6” and 300 pounds) and just plain better. Luke Harper showed that when he hit a big boot and a wicked discus clothesline to finish off poor unfortunate Yoshi Tatsu. Overall the image just works. It’s different and interestin; more Wyatt Family please!

Emma made a ridiculous first impression:

This was Emma’s second match on NXT and an important time to make an impression. She decided to do so by coming out to weird dance music and dancing…..if you could call it that. She may have just been repeatedly pointing out the corners of the ceiling. You could say it was goofy. This odd choice made her the heel against the uber-popular Paige. Emma followed up this simple character evolution by targeting Paige’s leg and showcasing a technical ability she must have picked up at Lance Storm’s training camp. Emma even used Lance’s Single-leg Boston Crab. Emma did so well with the attacks on Paige’s leg that the raven-haired lady was forced to bust out her finisher quickly and win the match.

So Paige keeps up her winning streak and Emma advances greatly as a televised wrestler. Good match!

The all-nepotism tag team match was surprisingly good:

Not that any of these wrestlers are bad, but all are second generation stars that have probably been given more chances and more patience than they would have without their famous fathers. Still, I enjoyed the match. I was kinda expecting Michael McGillicutty to turn on Bo Dallas the entire time, but that didn’t happen. Instead I got a back and forth tag match with a ridiculous crowd supporting it. The NXT arena and specifically its McGillicutty fans were, believe it or not, chanting for headlocks! It was the weirdest thing.

In the end I was surprised again when the Colons actually won the match! Primo hit the backstabber on McGillicutty, leading to an awesome reaction shot of Epico also being surprised at his victory.

Langston is champ, the crowd goes wild:

Langston is the most popular good guy in NXT. Does he do much? No, but what he does gets a reaction. Since Rollins (and the people in the back) are smart enough to work around Langston’s possible limitations, this match was very entertaining. Rollins used his speed and his Shield teammates to keep Langston at bay for a bit, but eventually some other NXT wrestlers came and removed Reigns and Ambrose, leaving Langston to finish off Rollins. Big E did so by catching Rollins mid-Sliced Bread #2 and countering with his Big Ending finisher. Langston celebrated with the locker-room in the ring and Rollins can now go off and be in the Shield on the main shows.

….of course, the new NXT champion in now working on the main shows as well. Does that mean he’ll lose the championship soon? Only time will tell. Watch the whole show this week guys, its good stuff.

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